Search La Trobe

Cannabis plays havoc with men’s orgasms

Cannabis plays havoc with men’s orgasms

Men who smoke marijuana daily are four times more likely to have trouble reaching orgasm than men who don't inhale, a new La Trobe University study of 8,656 Australians has found.

Other daily male cannabis smokers experienced premature ejaculation at nearly three times the rate of non-smokers.

Professor Anthony Smith, from the University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society in Melbourne, said: ‘The findings suggest that men are self-medicating with cannabis to delay orgasm’.

‘While many male smokers experienced sexual problems, they also reported more partners than non-smokers.’

‘Marijuana users were twice as likely to have had two or more sex partners in the previous year than men who didn't smoke cannabis,’ said Professor Smith.

The study’s findings are to be published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine (DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2009.01453.x).

The data came from a 2005 telephone survey of 16 to 64-year-olds collected for the Australian Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships. Participants were asked whether they had used cannabis at least ten times in their life, whether they had used it in the 12 months before the interview and, if so, whether they had used it daily, weekly or less often.

Overall, 8.7 per cent of respondents said they had used cannabis in the last year, with twice as many men (11.2 per cent) reporting marijuana use as women (6.1 per cent). People under 36 were more likely to smoke marijuana than older participants.

The team found daily female cannabis smokers were more likely to have two or more sexual partners in the previous yearand were also seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection in the last year than non-smokers.

Professor Smith encouraged GPs to enquire about patients’ cannabis use given the associations reported usage and sexual health issues.

Cannabis is the most wildly cultivated and used illicit drug with an estimated 147 million people using it annually.

Its use has been linked to earlier and more frequent sexually activity, having multiple sex partners, inconsistent contraceptive use and being diagnosed with a sexually transmissible infection.

The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) was established in October 1992 as an independent research unit within the Faculty of Health Sciences at La Trobe University. The Centre is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and applied skills in sexual health research and education locally, nationally and internationally. Media inquiries: